Nothing is more important to the patient’s outcome than properly performed chest compressions.
The complicated case of a retiree with a newly diagnosed lung tumor kicks off our new “Case Study” department.
Pradaxa gives clinicians a new tool for preventing strokes and
blood clots in patients with atrial fibrillation. Learn how it works,
who’s eligible to receive it, and how to administer it.
Most women woefully underestimate their risk for heart disease. Although breast cancer gets more publicity, heart disease and stroke kill nearly 12 times as many American women. This article details gender-based differences in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention and discusses strategies to raise awareness of women’s cardiovascular risks.
Reproductive status, hormonal therapy, oral contraceptives, irregular menstrual cycles, and pregnancy complications may raise woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease.
Our evolving understanding of how blood loss causes shock is changing trauma resuscitation methods.
Ongoing research, development, and vigilance initiatives are designed to make blood components safer and more easily available.
A new study finds that ED diversion is associated with increased mortality.
ANA’s National Center for Nursing Quality promotes nursing quality and patient safety while helping nurses advocate for themselves.
The patient thinks she knows what’s causing her chest pain. Her nurse knows she must rule out myocardial infarction.
Increase your ability to recognize aortic aneurysms and provide postop care.
Global traveling brings about 1,000 cases of malaria to this country each year. Don’t be caught off guard if you encounter it in your practice.
A nurse responds quickly to the patient’s distress.
More than 1 million Americans a year suffer a myocardial infarction (MI). This article tells you how – and how quickly – you need to respond to the most dangerous MI.
More than 1 million Americans a year suffer a myocardial infarction (MI). This article tells you how – and how quickly – you need to respond to the most dangerous MI.
Methemoglobinemia from benzocaine exposure causes tissue hypoxia.
For patients with severe heart failure, ventricular assist devices are being used in more ways than ever.
Testing a prototype identification system leads to 100% acuracy.
In an emergency, this blood test can detect heart failure rapidly and reliably.
A study shows this method helps educators focus on topics the patient doesn’t fully grasp.
A precursor to serious complications, this dangerous condition is on the rise among Americans.
Many patients face prolonged recovery and permanent disability after a traumatic brain injury. This article reviews appropriate assessment and intervention and highlights family care.
Because of improvements in safety, stents are now the treatment of choice for many patients. Learn about the improvements and your role in patient care.
Central lines can save lives. But dangerous complications can occur unless caregivers know how to identify, prevent, and solve potential problems.
A nursing team’s research findings lead to hospital-wide savings.
Commonly confused with SIADH, cerebral salt wasting can result from such neurologic conditions as subarachnoid hemmorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, intracranial surgery, and brain trauma.
The shapes of red blood cells can tell you plenty about your patient’s condition – if you know how to interpret them.
To save this patient, the team must halt cerebral artery vasospasms quickly.
This technique slowly removes wastes and excess plasma water, helping patients recover from their illness.
Recent studies shed light on the importance of maximizing glycemic control in inpatients with diabetes.
Learn how to recognize and intervene for patients with these electrical heart abnormalities.
Early recognition and action can save a limb.
With multi-lead telemetry monitoring, a nurse detects dangerous changes in her patient’s heart rhythm, permitting quick action before an acute MI does permanent damage.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) kills about 25% of those it strikes. This article explains how deep vein thrombosis (DVT) sets the stage for PE and describes how to assess, manage, and prevent both DVT and PE.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) kills about 25% of those it strikes. This article explains how deep vein thrombosis (DVT) sets the stage for PE and describes how to assess, manage, and prevent both DVT and PE.
Fast, focused assessment and action can stop this dangerous imbalance.
If you suspect your workplace culture is “ill,” assessment is a crucial first step. Using an established assessment tool can help ensure more thorough data collection.
An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
Web Exclusive! An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals, at www.AmericanNurseToday.com/journal.
WEB EXCLUSIVE! An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
Web Exclusive! An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
A weekly update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
Web exclusive! An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
Web Exclusive! An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals at www.AmericanNurseToday.com/journal.
Web Exclusive! An update of drug news, including alerts, approvals, and removals.
Use sequential compression devices effectively to help achieve the best possible outcomes for patients.
Learn how you can help prevent bleeding in patients with cancer.
Effective communication enables nurses and physicians to negotiate a collaborative decision that honors the family’s wishes.
Syncope is a common occurrence and is commonly benign. But sometimes a swoon signals a serious underlying condition. Learn what causes syncope and how to assess and intervene for a patient who has just experienced it.
Many patients with HIV/AIDS are doing well on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Yet HAART can increase cardiovascular risks by reducing high-density lipoprotein levels, raising triglyceride levels, and causing insulin resistance.
This rare and sometimes hard-to-detect condition can jeopardize your patient’s life and limb.
When excessive blood loss during delivery threatens a mother’s life, quick assessment, effective interventions, and expert aid from the rapid response team maneuver her postpartum course back onto a normal track.
In its early stages, sepsis can be difficult to detect.
Learn about the sometimes-subtle signs and symptoms.
Two common conditions caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000 people and ramped up health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006 alone, according to a study released Feb. 22 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) originates from atherosclerosis, a disease in which low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles build up in the arterial wall.
These arrhythmias can be tricky to interpret on a rhythm strip.
The author guides you through the basics.
Fluid loss…poor tissue perfusion…oxygen deprivation…acidosis…multisystem organ failure. Unless interrupted, the scary chain of events in hypovolemic shock leads to death. Learn how to hault this perilous process with early assessment and masterful management.
How to use auscultation to distiguish sinus bradycardia from complete heart block in geriatric patients.
Increasing numbers of patients at risk for sudden cardiac death are receiving ICDs for primary prevention. This article explains how ICD therapy has grown more complicated.
Is your facility doing enough to help stroke patients survive and regain functional independence? Find out how a national evidence-based initiative helps hospitals deliver better stroke care.
The author explains not the Newborn Scale of Sepsis she developed helps nurses quantify the clinical signs and laboratory markers of severe bacterial infection.
Learn the telltale signs of brain swelling and find out which patients are most at risk.
Create a protocol for this lifesaving intervention at your facility.
ANA’s healthy blood pressure campaign targets both consumers and nurses.
Use these tips and techniques to identify heart sounds and murmurs in children.
Patients with stable chronic heart failure may suddenly start decompensating. Do you know how to recognize this condition and help avert organ failure?
Not all AV blocks are dangerous. Find out which ones are and how they’re managed.
A type of dialysis, MARS removes toxins and replaces
lost liver functions.
Learn the advantages of repairing a mitral valve instead of replacing it.
Standard of care in the ICU – or object of overuse, abuse, and misuse? The authors explain why they believe PA catheter use may harm more critically ill patients than it helps.
Learn more about this rare but dangerous condition.
Don’t miss the opportunity to practice your arterial blood gas interpretation skills.
Peripheral arterial disease is all too common – and all too often goes unrecognized.
Despite recent gains in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension, a cure is a long way off. Diagnosis and therapy can be tricky, and prognosis remains poor. Still, there are ways nurses can help slow disease progression and improve quality of life for a child with this condition.
Brush up on your knowledge of these potentially life-saving drugs.
Buff up your knowledge of preload, afterload, neurohormonal regulation of circulation, and more.
Suspect polymyalgia in patients who continue to decline after treatment for pericardial effusion.
Home health nurses play a vital role in helping patients recover from stroke
Identify the signs of hypovolemia and intervene before hypovolemic shock develops.
A recent stroke, a history of hypertension and renal disease, and a sudden surge in blood pressure alert caregivers to a patient’s hypertensive urgency.
Avoid multiple organ failure with early monitoring and early intervention.
How an evidence-based protocol for risk assessment and risk-based prophylaxis can decrease venous thromboembolism in your institution.
Confused about central catheters? Here’s what you need to know.
I.V. fluids should help a dehydrated patient, but for one with a history of atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease, they could contribute to pulmonary edema. For Grace Johnson, quick assessment and action staved off a poor outcome.
Every year, 2 million Americans experience atrial fibrillation (AF)—a chaotic electrical storm that ripples across both atria. The more you know about AF, the better off your patients will be.
During American Heart Month, let’s heed our own health promotion advice.
New techniques expand the options for high-risk patients and cause fewer complications than conventional surgery.
Follow the signs and symptoms to this unusual source of life-threatening bleeding.
Four in 10 victims die immediately. For those who make it to the ED alive, survival hinges on the healthcare team’s ability to promptly recognize aortic dissection.
For a postoperative laminectomy patient, sudden left-sided weakness and sensation loss warrant a STAT return to the OR.
Saving a patient from sudden death starts with recognizing the dangerous ventricular arrythmia that precedes it.
An interdisciplinary sepsis initiative eases the sepsis burden on patients, families, and the healthcare system.
February is the perfect opportunity to get heart healthy.
Manay dangerous ischemic events are clinically silent. Continuous ST-segment monitoring gives early warning of the silent ischemia that many other diagnostic methods fail to detect.
American Heart Month is a time to celebrate the wealth of information that if acted on, can help prevent cardiovascular disease.
How to recognize sepsis in time and use the therapies recommended by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign.
Nurses play a significant role in helping patients to get the sleep they need.
For someone with sickle cell trait, exercise can trigger dangerous complications. But most people who have the trait, don’t know it.
Awaken patients with sleep apnea to the danger of their condition.
The swift response of the healthcare team helps a patient avoid the most devastating effects of a stroke.
How skilled assesment and decisive action can save a life.
For a patient with chronic heart failure, failure to take prescribed diuretics triggers a perilous chain of events
Recognize and reverse this medical emergency.
A monthly round-up of clinical, practice, and career news, updates, and alerts.
A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
Web exclusive! A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts at www.AmericanNurseToday.com
WEB EXCLUSIVE! A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
A weekly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
Web Exclusive! A monthly round-up of clinical and practice news and alerts.
You can help save lives by learning how stroke symptoms and risk factors differ in women and men.
How one rapid response team prevents cardiac arrest and provides other life-saving benefits outside the ICU.
This review of the six classes of antihypertensives tells you what you need to know and what you need to teach patients.
With the growing use of cardiac pacemakers, it’s time
to refresh your knowledge of pacemaker basics. This article
describes types of pacemakers, reviews pacemaker codes, and helps you interpret pacemaker rhythm strips.
This complex disorder takes many forms, has many causes, and is growing more common due to increased heparin
exposure. Learn how to help prevent it, identify it early, and manage both the disorder and its complications.
Blood transfusions can sustain and save lives. But sometimes they sicken and even kill. Learn how to prevent, detect, and manage blood transfusion reactions.
Until recently, the outlook for patients who remained comatose after cardiac arrest was dire. But therapeutic hypothermia is turning the tide. Learn the facts about this life-saving approach.
Learn tips for quitting smoking.
This new aortic stenosis treatment avoids the sternotomy, aortotomy, and cardiopulmonary bypass of traditional valve replacement
This minimally invasive approach provides an unobstructed view of nearly all cardiac structures.
When a patient’s blood pressure goes stratospheric, the first priority is to check for signs of organ damage.
Use The Joint Commission core measures to improve the care of patients with heart failure.
Learn how to detect and manage pain in patients who may not respond to pain in expected ways.
The author takes the reader on her step-by-step journey that resulted in a change in practice.
Your knowledge and your patient teaching can be the difference between a quick recovery and a serious complication.
Learn the basics about the most common inherited bleeding disorder.
Nearly half of ICU patients have central venous catheters, putting them at risk for deadly bloodstream infections. Learn about proven methods for preventing these infections – and about ineffective practices we should abandon.
How genetic testing ensures that patients start warfarin therapy at their personal-best doses.
Learn about the causes of this disorder, current treatments, and important nursing considerations.
Neurogenic shock must be diagnosed and treated early to limit the effects of hypotension and bradycardia and restore adequate tissue oxygenation.
How to recognize and reverse transfuion-related acute lung injury.
A new lab technique called segmented gradient gel electrophoresis identifies subclasses of cholesterol and more precisely predicts your patient’s cardiac risk.
Be sure you can recognize the signs of angioedema.
A patient’s brief loss of consciousness leads to discovery of long QT syndrome. By thinking fast and making all the right moves, you can stave off the threat of torsades de pointes.
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